Halloween horror as coffins exposed in Irish storm deluge

Abbey Graveyard, Howth - changed law will allow bodies to be buried in Ireland with no coffin

Monday’s torrential downpour which left parts of Dublin city and the east coast flooded, has been declared a record.

It was so bad on Dublin’s coast, that heavy rain led to a graveyard wall collapsing which left several coffins exposed and floating to the surface in Howth, a Dublin suburb.

John Bennet, a local resident, said the coffins belonged to his parents who are buried with his six month old sister.

"I could not believe it when I saw pictures of the coffins online yesterday. I was devastated. As far as we were concerned, this was supposed to be my parents' final resting place," he told the Irish Independent.

"The most disturbing part of this, which is only hitting me now, is that there is going to have to be a reinterment over the next few weeks. We thought we had buried my parents and that was that.

"I hope they can be cremated and their ashes scattered at the plot," he said.

Data released from Ireland’s weather service, Met Eireann, shows that around three-and-a-quarter inches of rainfall was recorded at Casement Aerodrome at Baldonnell in south Dublin on Monday; this was the highest rainfall recorded for any date during October since rainfall records began in 1954.

Met Eireann added that almost 80 percent of that rain fell within six hours on Monday between 2-8pm.

Rainfall at Dublin airport on the city’s north side was over two-and-a-half inches. A station at Phoenix Park recorded almost two inches of rainfall during a four hour period.

Abbey Graveyard, Howth - changed law will allow bodies to be buried in Ireland with no coffin